\ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. | 

Chap. -E^J_vf _„___. 



UNJTED STATES OF AMERSCA. ! 



BANQUET > 

/ 

MAJOR-GrEN. JOHN At DTX, 

L AT K ENVOY EXTUAOt! t UNARY AND 
MINLSTER P US N l POTE NT I A B 5 

FROM THK UNITED STATES To PRAN^B, 

. GIVK.N BY ft-' 

I [] E A M E RIGANS IX PARIS, 



B ANQUE T 



MAJOR-GEN. JOHN A. DIX 



LATE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND 
MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY 



FROM THE UNITED STATES TO FRANCE, 



GIVEN BY 



THE AMERICANS OF PARIS, 



TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 18G9. 



1 




PARIS: IMPRIMERIE KUGELMANN, RUE DES JBXJNEURS. 
1869. 



INTRODUCTION. 



On the retirement of Major-General John A. 
Dix from his official position as Envoy Extra- 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the 
United States to France, it seemed desirable to 
many Americans resident in Paris, that some public 
acknowledgment should be expressed by them to 
him, for varied civic and military services at home, 
as well as for the honor he had more recently 
reflected upon American diplomacy abroad. 

A meeting was accordingly called, on the 13th 
of May, for the purpose of taking such preliminary 
steps as might seem necessary to the appropriate 
realisation of the presumed wishes of all our com- 
patriots. 



4 



Dr. Thomas W. Evans was invited to take the 
chair. 

At this meeting the following resolutions were 
passed : — 

Resolved — " That Major-General John A. Dix be invited to 
accept a complimentary dinner to be given by the Americans in 
Paris, at as early a day as may suit his convenience." 

Resolved — " That this dinner shall be public — open to ladies 
and gentlemen." 

Resolved — " That the Committee of Invitation shall consist of 
those persons present at this meeting and of all invited to be 
present, as also of such other persons as the Committee of 
Organization may think it proper to add." 



The business of the meeting , was completed by 
the appointment of the following special com- 
mittees : — 



COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION. 
THOMAS W. EVANS, M.D., NATHAN APPLETON, 



JOHN MUNROE, 
JAMES PHALEN, 



FRANK LIVERMORE, M.D., 
E. R. ANDREWS, 
S. P. DEWEY, 
ISAAC H. BURCH, 



LORILLARD SPENCER, 
HENRY WOODS, 



AV. E. JOHNSTON, M.D. 



5 



DINN ER COMMITTEE. 

W. P. FETRIDGE, CHARLES B. NORTON, 

A. VAN BERGEN, ' H. BREVOORT, 

GEO. T. RICHARDS, E. A. CRANE, M.D., 

JAMES W. TUCKER. 

MUSIC COMMITTEE. 

H. A. SHACKELFORD, JOHN W. CRANE, 

EUGENE WINTHROP, F. LOUBAT, 

GEO. S. PARTRIDGE. 



„ The proposition to offer a testimonial of respect 
and esteem to onr late Minister, was received by 
our countrymen with a spontaneity and unanimity 
of feeling which were as satisfactory to them, as 
they have been pleasing and graceful tributes to the 
man we would honor. 

On the 21st of May the Committee of Organiza- 
tion drew up the following letter of invitation to 
General Dix, which subsequently received the 
signatures of the gentlemen whose names are 
annexed. 

" To His Excellency Major- General John A. Dix, Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near the Emperor 
of the French. 

" Sir, 

" It has seemed to many of our countrymen resident in Paris, 
that the moment of your retirement from the responsible repre- 
sentative position which you have so worthily held at the French 



6 



Court, will furnish a proper occasion on which to offer you some 
testimonial in appreciation of your various public services. 

" During the years of a cruel and calamitous war, you gave 
to oar country your counsel and the example of a noble and 
pure patriotism. You have more recently, in the discharge of 
the delicate diplomatic and official duties entrusted to you by 
our Government, been distinguished by a love of country and a 
fidelity to its interests equally great ; by an ability, wisdom, and 
discretion equally eminent ; and by a courtesy and amenity in 
your daily intercourse with us, which have gained for you our 
warmest friendship. 

" Prompted by these considerations, we now ask you, in behalf 
of all our countrymen who may be in Paris, to name some day 
convenient to yourself when they may tender to you a public 
dinner, and convey to you in an appropriate manner their 
sentiments of respect and esteem. 
" Paris, May 21, 1869. 



(Signed) 



Thomas W. Evans, M.D., 

John Munroe, 

James Phalen, 

Lorillard Spencer, 

Henry Woods, 

Nathan Appleton, 

Frank Livermore, M.D., 

S. P. Dewey, 

Isaac H. Burch, 

B. E. Andrews, 

W. E. Johnston, M.D., 

John H. Harjes, 

Joseph H. Parsons, 

Charles Pepper, 

Edward Moore, 

Edward Pepper, 

J. Van Schaick, 

Chas. D. Hollins, 

H. P. Borie, 

John Struthers, 

John Ware, 

James W. Tucker, 



Albert K. Eeed, 
James E. Caldwell, 
Meredith Bailey, 
Gilbert C. Kice, 
William B. Bowles, 
Commander B. B. Lowry, 
Oscar G. Sawyer, 
Edward A. Crane, M.D., 
J. B. Brown, 
J. S. Delprat, 
Sereno D. Nickerson, 
Edmund H. Miller, 
Benj. Smith, 
J. C. Warren, 
P. H. Coolidge, 
Chas. Tudor Stewart, 
Francis Skinner, 
A. L. Tubbs, 
Launt Thompson, 
John B. Alley, 
Charles Lherbette, 
Elliot C. Cowdin. 



( 



John W. Crane, 


A. Van Bergen, 


Chas. Addoms, 


A. D. Jessup, 


Henry A. Hurlbut, 


H. S. Bradford, 


Thomas P. Rich, 


TT TT\ "T\ T TT1 

L. D. McPherson, 


Edward C. Johnson, 


S. M. Quincy, 


George H. Howard, 


Francis Greenwood Young, 


Ernest Tuckerman, 


J. B. Haggin, 


Amos R. Eno, 


/IT A T\ T> 1 i 

Chas. A. Du Bouchet, 


T7< TTT T71 * T 

E. W. Fisk, 


Philip Henry Brown, 


TTT TT TT 1 1 Mi 

Wm. H. Vanderbilt, 


Fredk. L. de Forest, 


r . Lou bat, 


Chas. Van Blunt, 


Wm. A. Booth, 


Wed. W. Clarke, 


W. H. Russell, 


Lewis B. Parsons, 


N. N. Vesey, 


Alfred L. Tyler, 


Jathan Post, 


A. (J. lyler, 


John A. Robinson, 


Jno. J. Ryan, 


Thomas Robinson. 


Harrison Ritchie, 


J. Armstrong, 


Albert Lee Ward, 


Bayard Clarke, 


Michael Weaver, 


W. Pembroke Fetridge, 


Lewis Bullard, 


Cnas. b. Douglas, 


jj. M. jtiuei, 


Wm. i±. Appleton, 


Henry C. Davis, 


Wm. E. Howe, 


John H. Saunders, 


George Evans, 


±1. A. onacKeitoici, 


a. otone, 


O . Vy. XVclllC, 


1 horn as Clark, 


William oiacie, 


J. Augustus Hamilton. 


A. Stone, jun., 


Samuel H. Kennedy. 


Ezra Farnsworth. 


Bronson C. Rumsey, 


Joseph Tuckerman. 


Jd. U-. Curtis, 


Charles S. Robinson, 


Thomas J. Bryan, 


George Merrill, 


Eugene Winthrop, 


Seymour L. Huxted, 


jc/. w. .Lenman, 


Thomas Taylor 


J. Norris Robinson, 


J. A. MC-Hean, 


Kobt. A. lurner, 


T "V Oil „ 

John Stearns. 


James W. Grimes. 


J. L. Lombard, 


W. R. Overman. 


Edward Leavitt, 


±1. .Dievoort, 


Theodore S. Evans, 


Levi Taylor, 


Chas. W. Darling, 


J. West Rulon, 


Benj. S. WeUes, 


Geo. W. Carpenter, 


Thomas Van Zandt, 


J. Q. A. Warren, 


Martin Zborowski. 


J. W. Swift, 


H. H. Magil, 


Adolph Kohn, 


W. H. Riggs, 


J. J. Bailey, 


Henry Scudder, 


Edward Clark. 


H. M. Heuston, 



Wm. Edgar, 
Horace Craighead, 
Geo. T. Jones, 
Jos. Kerrick Riggs, 
Geo. T. Richards, 
Edward Gage, 
J. F. Butterwortk, 
Ferdinand Suydam, 
Lawrence Kip, 
Eugene Dewey, 
Leonard V/. Jerome, 
Benj. Moore, 
John C. Kruger, 
James Bowdoin, 
Charles B. Norton, 
C. S. McClennen; 
J. H. Mc Clermen, 
L. Hubert, 
John C. "Waller, 
Charles W. Darling, 
Franklin J. Kinney, 
Geo. S. Partridge, 
Marion Sims, M.D., 
Maurice Strakosck, 
H. G. Chadwick, 
James McDowell, M.D., 
James Gallatin, 
Albert Gallatin, 
John C. Cruger, 
Aug. Whiting, 
Hamilton Wyld, 
Isaac L. Lloyd, 
Shelden Leavitt, 
Mr. W. S. Gurnee, 



J. A. Hamilton, 
Jefferson Rives, 
James D. Carhart, 
Walter Gregory, 
W. Sheldon Smith, 
Charles Townsend, 
James P. Fogg, 
Francis G. Young, 
G. Montagu Hicks, 
L. Kenoe, 

D. R. Simson, 
Ernest E. Cook, 
Erasme Cusainey, 
John Savage, 

S. H. Rindge, 
August Biesel, 

E. Bliss, M.D., 
Geo. A. Fellow, 
James L. Butler, 

E. Delessert, 
Merritt Armstrong, 
Fulton Cutting, 

L. C. Austen, 
Robert Remsen, 
A. Bierstadt, 
Thomas Pratt, M.D., 
Henry Wickhoff, 
Thos. J. Bryan, 
J. Howard Wainwright, 
Fred. G. Foster, 
Wm. E. Howe, 

F. Oecks, 

S. A. Lamanos. n 



To this letter General Dix returned the follow- 
ing reply : — 

"Paris, 24th May, 1869. 

" Gentlemen, 

" I have received your letter of the 21st instant, tendering me 
a public dinner on the occasion of my retirement from the 
position of Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 



9 



" For the very kind expressions, with which the offer is 
accompanied, I beg you to accept my sincere thanks. I am sure 
I need not say to you how fully I appreciate this courtesy as a 
testimonial of your approbation and friendly regard. It will 
afford me unfeigned gratification to meet my countrymen here in 
Paris once more before my approaching departure from them ; 
and, at your suggestion, I name the 1st of June proximo as a 
day which will be convenient to me, as I hope it may be to 
them. 

" I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, 

Most truly and respectfully yours, 

JOHN A. DIN, 

"Messrs. Thos. W. Evans, M.D., 
John Munroe, 
James Phalen, 
Lorillard Spencer, 
Henry Woods, 
Nathan Appleton, 
Frank Livermore, M.D., 
S. P. Dewey, 
Isaac H. Burch, 
W. E. Johnston, M.D., 
Edward E. Andrews." 



General Dix's letter of acceptance having been 
received, it remained for the Committee of Organiza- 
tion and the Associate Committees to execute their 
purposes. 

The Grand Hotel was selected as the most suit- 
able place for the proposed banquet, and Mr. Elliot 
C. Cowdin was chosen to preside on the occasion, 



10 



Letters of special invitation were addressed to 
His Excellency the Hon. E. B. Washburne, the 
successor of General Dix, near the Emperor of the 
French ; to their Excellencies all the Envoys 
Extraordinary and Ministers resident from the 
United States to European Courts ; to His Ex- 
cellency the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Ambassador 
from China ; to the Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, 
late Governor of Massachusetts ; and to others. 
Letters of acceptance were received from His 
Excellency the Hon. Mr. Washburne ; from His 
Excellency the Hon. Mr. Burlingame ; from the 
Hon. Alexander H. Bullock ; and from others. 
Letters were also received from a number of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen whose engagements prevented 
their attendance at the banquet. 



BANQUET. 



BANQUET. 



The banquet was held at the Grand Hotel on Tuesday 
evening, June 1st. A few minutes before eight o'clock, 
General Dix arrived at the Hotel, accompanied by Dr. 
Thomas W. Evans, who had been charged by the Committee 
of Organization to wait upon the distinguished guest at his 
residence. 

The company entered the dining-room at eight o'clock. 
This large and elegant room was most tastefully adorned 
with American and French flags, while the tables were 
beautifully decorated with flowers. The coup cVceil was really 
magnificent. 

As the company took their assigned places, national airs 
were given by the orchestra. 

The Chairman of the Dinner Committee is certainly 
entitled to very great credit for the admirable manner in 
which everything connected with the seating of the company 
was arranged. 



14 



At the principal table, which was placed upon an estrade, 
or elevated platform, Mr. Elliot C. Cowdin presided. On 
his right were seated Major- General Dix, Mrs. Anson 
Burlingame, the Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, Mrs. Thomas 
W. Evans, Mr. John Munroe, Mr. James Phalen, the Rev. 
Mr. Lamson. On the left of the President were seated 
His Excellency Elihu B. Washburne, Minister from the 
United States to France ; Mrs. Alexander H. Bullock ; 
His Excellency Anson. Burlingame, Minister from China ; 
Mrs. Elliot C. Cowdin, Dr. Thomas W. Evans, Mr. S. P. 
Dewey, the Rev. Dr. Robinson. 

The following gentlemen and ladies were present as 
invited guests : — 

Major-General John A. Dix, His Excellency the Hon. 
Elihu B. Washburne, His Excellency the Hon. Anson Bur- 
lingame, Mrs. Anson Burlingame, the Hon. Alexander H. 
Bullock, Mrs. Alexander H. Bullock, Mr. Elliot C. Cowdin, 
Mrs. Cowdin, the Rev. Mr. Lamson, Mrs. Lamson, the 
Rev. Dr. Robinson, Mrs. Robinson. 

More than three hundred and fifty guests and members 
of the American colony at Paris sat down at the tables. 

When all had taken their seats, the President arose and 
called upon the Rev. Mr. Lamson to ask a blessing. 



Grace. 

Almighty God, the Author of our being and Preserver of our lives, 
from whom cometh every good gift, we look to Thee to-night to 
sanctify with Thy blessing the social pleasure we are here to enjoy. 
May we be so guided in the use of Thy bounty and in the business 
of honoring human worth that we do nothing unseemly in Thy 
sight ; but that, rendering to Thee supreme gratitude and honor, 
we may so please Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 



15 



After the company had partaken of a sumptuous dinner, 
the President, calling the assembly to order, spoke as 
follows : — 

SPEECH OF MR. ELLIOT C. COWDIX. 

Fellow, Countrymen, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — 

In assuming the duties of the chair, which the partiality 
of your committee has assigned me, while I am grateful 
for the honor, I ask your generous indulgence. 

We meet as Americans, to pay homage to the late 
Minister of the United States, a distinguished statesman, 
who, during a long life of civil, military, and diplomatic 
service, has shed lustre upon the American name at home 
and abroad, in peace and in war. (Applause.) 

In your behalf I bid him welcome to this festive board, 
and assure him that this gathering of his friends on the eve 
of his departure is but a slight acknowledgment of their 
appreciation of his generous hospitality, his uniform courtesy 
and urbanity, his consistency and singleness of purpose, and, 
above all, of his elevated christian character and example, 
long to be cherished with grateful remembrance by his 
admiring countrymen. (Great applause.) 

Assembled as we are in the great capital of Europe, and 
conscious of its privileges, let us foster good-fellowship with 
the people of every nation, gleaning from their opinions 
and deeds what is valuable to ourselves. Especially, let us 
hope that the friendly relations which have always existed 
between France and the United States — so recently re- 
affirmed by the Emperor and the President — may continue 
for ever, and that these great nations may be rivals only in 
their efforts to elevate, civilize, and christianize mankind. 

The mutual interests and natural sympathies of the 
people of the Old World and the New, irresistibly grow 
stronoer and strono-er as time rolls on. 



f 



16 

The progress of trade and the liberal arts have thrown a 
s tout ? though invisible, net- work of mutual dependence 
around the most distant empires. They can no longer be 
as isolated as of yore. 

The march of civilization has not only thrown open the 
ports of Japan to the trade of enterprising and enlightened 
nations, but it has trampled down the walls of China itself ; 
and to-day we behold an American citizen, a gallant 
champion of progress and reform, the honored representa- 
tive of that vast empire to the great Powers of the world. 
(Great applause.) 

Our own country, in spite of two foreign wars and a 
gigantic rebellion, has outrun even the prophecies of en- 
thusiasm. 

Scarcely more than half a century ago Talleyrand, the 
prince of European diplomatists, speaking of the United 
States to the First Napoleon, said, " It is a giant without 
bones." Behold it now ! 

Our forty millions of people, elevated by peace and 
hardened by war ; our railways and telegraphs stretching 
in every direction, aye, and spanning the Continent itself 
in their Brierean grasp ; our long rivers and broad lakes, 
floating their myriads of ships and steamers ; the keels of 
our foreign commerce, fretting every sea; our pleasure 
yachts, framed to skim quiet harbors, braving the storms 
of the Atlantic in mid- winter for mere sport, and startling 
Neptune himself with their daring ; our workshops and 
manufactories, mingling the music of their machinery with 
the roar of innumerable water-falls ; the steady advance- 
ment of our people in the industrial arts, attracting to their 
aid genius and skilled labor from all nations ; our arms, 
ringing in successful trial on the training fields of Europe ; 
our boundless prairies and exhaustless mines, teeming with 
life and industry ; the fecundity of our cotton fields, bringing- 
the manufacturers of all Europe to our shores ; the fertility 



17 

of our soil, the cheapness of our lands, and our free home- 
stead law, which lure countless immigrants from over the 
sea, and enable the poorest citizen to become the tiller of 
his own acres ; our common schools, whose doors swing 
open at the touch of the humblest child ; the liberty of 
speech and of the press, with freedom to worship God 
according to the dictates of an untrammelled conscience ; 
the general diffusion of the electoral suffrage, whereby each 
citizen exerts a direct influence upon the Government to 
which he yields obedience ; in a word, our manifold 
achievements, scientific, industrial, political, and more 
especially the working out to a successful demonstration 
through ninety years of eventful history the great problem 
that a government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, can grow stronger and stronger day by day, amid 
the prosperity of peace and the calamity of war. 

These, these, are the " bones " of our American " giant." 
(Applause.) 

Is not such a country and such a people worthy of the 
best efforts of the best men ? 

Of the countless illustrations of American enterprise, 
I may mention the Pacific Railway, built in the interest 
of peace, in time of war. To our honored guest, the 
successful completion of this great work is largely due, for 
he was its first president. 

I would speak of his higher efforts for the life of the 
nation, were it not that the memory of them is engraven 
upon every American heart ; for the most concentrated and 
burning war-cry of the Union fell from his lips — - 

u If any man attempts to haul down the American 
flag, shoot him on the spot." (Tremendous applause.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen — The most agreeable part of my 
duty remains to be performed. It is to propose, the health 
of our distinguished guest, Major-General John A. Dix, 
the statesman, soldier, patriot, and scholar, who, in the 
B 



18 



hour of national peril, unmindful of party, of interest, and 
of self, stood 

" Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
His loyalty he kept — his love — his zeal." 

(Long-continued applause.) 

The whole audience arose and responded to the closing 
sentiment of the President, amidst the most enthusiastic 
cheering. When the applause had subsided, General Dix 
spoke as follows : — 

SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX. 

Mb. Pkesident, — 
I am greatly embarrassed by the complimentary language 
in which you have spoken of me and my public services ; 
and I accept it, not as the evidence of merit on my part, 
but of partiality on yours. I do not, however, value 
it the less as a testimonial of the kind feeling which 
has inspired it ; but I am utterly unable to respond, as I 
wish, to sentiments expressed with so much warmth and 
grace. 

To you, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is equally hopeless to 
attempt to express my deep sense of the obligation I owe 
you for the conspicuous manner in which you are pleased 
to mark the termination of my official service in France. I 
am greatly indebted to you also for the friendly considera- 
tion which you have extended to me during my residence 
in Paris, and especially in the performance of my delicate 
and sometimes embarrassing unofficial duties. I have 
nothing to offer you in return but my heartfelt thanks. 

It affords me great pleasure to make to you personally 
this acknowledgment of your oft-repeated acts of kindness 
and courtesy. Although I am glad to have an opportunity 
of bidding you all, before my separation from you, a cordial 



19 



farewell, it is a word I cannot pronounce without pain, even 
though it is the harbinger of my return to our native land. 
For it is not in the order of human life that another sun 
should see us all reassembled ; and yet I indulge the hope 
that for many of us— most of us, let us trust — this separa- 
tion may be but transient, and that we may meet again 
beyond the sea and join our gratulating hands in friendly 
greetings on our natal soil. 

Indeed, without this hope of return, there would be little 
to sustain us either in our enjoyments or our trials under 
foreign skies. As the needle, when put in motion, vibrates 
for a time from side to side, but always returns to the same 
point of attraction, so in all our wanderings, however 
divergent our paths may be, or however eccentric our move- 
ments, " the heart untravelled " is ever turning to the land 
across the ocean, where our best affections, our most 
precious memories, and our fondest hopes are centred, 
(Applause.) 

Those of us who have been abroad in former years can- 
not have failed to notice that a much better feeling exists 
now in regard to us. For great events have occurred in 
the mean time to test the courage and the constancy of our 
people, and their devotion to great principles ; and it is to the 
manner in which they have passed through the fiery ordeal 
that this increased consideration is chiefly due. (Applause. ) 
But there is a moral in the popular movement in America 
— there are circumstances connected with our development 
and growth, which I think are not justly appreciated in 
Europe ; not, I am sure, from any feeling of unkindness, 
but because they are not sufficiently understood ; and I 
trust a brief reference to the subject on this occasion will 
not be deemed out of place. 

It is now nearly one hundred years since the people of 
the United States declared themselves free and independent. 
In thus assuming their sovereignty, they placed it on the 



20 



right of self-government and the fundamental principle of 
personal freedom. But, although this principle was theo- 
retically proclaimed by our Declaration of Independence, it 
has but just now been fully carried out in practice, and only 
after one of the most desperate domestic conflicts the world 
has ever witnessed. 

There is nothing, perhaps, more striking in the history of 
communities than the sudden development of unexpected 
results from causes which have been so long in operation 
that Ave have become almost unconscious of their influence. 
Such is the case with us. The civil war, through which we 
have just passed, had its origin to a great extent in a desire 
to protect the established system of domestic servitude, and 
to give it strength and durability, no doubt from a sincere 
belief on the part of those among whom it existed that it 
was essential to their prosperity. The result was its utter 
extinction. As has been eloquently said by an eminent 
writer and statesman of France, who is now enjoy- 
ing a tranquil and an honourable old age- — I mean Mr. 
Guizot : " Providence is never in haste. It moves through 
" time as the gods of Homer moved through space. It 
u takes a step and years have rolled away." 

Such a step bas been taken in our progress ; and hence- 
forth, in all the time that is to come in our history — from 
the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande — from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean — the soil of America is never again to 
be trodden by a servile foot. (Great applause.) I allude 
to this subject in no sectional or partisan spirit, but as to 
an accomplished fact in history, which is to be regarded 
only under its economical and philosophical aspects. 

It is no doubt well for communities, as it is for in- 
dividuals, that they cannot look forward into the future 
and foresee the prosperity that awaits or the evil that is to 
befall them. And yet there are circumstances in our con- 
dition which enable us to point out, with reasonable ground 



-2\ 



of assurance, the path in which we are destined to tread 
for many years to come. The greater portion of the Atlan- 
tic coast, on which our British ancestors established them- 
selves, when compared with interior districts, is far less 
propitious in soil and less genial in clime. Almost from 
the first landings at Plymouth, in Massachusetts, and 
Jamestown, in Virginia, there was a perpetual gravitation, 
if I may be allowed the expression, towards the richer 
valleys of the Connecticut, the Mohawk, the Genesee, the 
Wyoming, and the Shenandoah. Before these vacant 
spaces were fully occupied, the great basin of the Mis- 
sissippi, a thousand miles back from the New England 
coast, and, with its tributary, the Missouri, fonr thousand 
five hundred miles in length, with broad belts on either 
side, rich almost without a parallel with the alluvial 
deposits of ages, drew ns still farther westward ; and now 
the mines of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Arizona, 
and California — realizing in the affluence of their treasures 
all onr dreams of Oriental opulence ; the last in the series 
of the great mountain chains the richest of all — still urge 
us on to the extremest limit of our territory, until the 
waters of the Pacific break at our feet. These successive 
lures held out to us at each remove, and increasing in 
strength with our progress westward, indicate, with a 
significance not to be misunderstood, the mission which in 
the allotment of national fortunes we are appointed to 
fulfil. It is to carry the victorious arms of peace and 
unoffending labor across the North American Continent ; 
to convert a wilderness, which had been given up for ages 
to silence and solitude, and savage beasts, and still more 
savage men, into abodes of industry and art and civiliza- 
tion. If this current of attraction had been reversed ; if 
our chief centres of fertility had been found on the Atlantic 
coast, east of the Alleghany Mountains ; if Providence had 
not strewed along our path westward these high prizes to 



22 



stimulate and reward our enterprise, we should probably 
have been a mere mercantile community, occupying a 
comparatively narrow strip of maritime territory, a prey 
perhaps to the ambition and cupidity of more powerful 
nations, certainly involved in their disputes, and playing 
but an inconsiderable part in the great drama of inter- 
national society and politics. As it is, we commenced four 
years ago a railroad across the Sierra Nevada and the 
Rocky Mountain chains, and the great plains which spread 
themselves out from the eastern slope of the latter to the 
Missouri river. It is finished at the very hour I am 
addressing you. It is possible to perform the journey from 
New York to San Francisco, more than 3,000 miles from 
ocean to ocean, in six days ; and thus, after the lapse of 
nearly four hundred years, is realized the prophetic dream, 
or, I should rather say the great thought, of Christopher 
Columbus, by opening a Western passage from Europe to 
the Indies. (Great applause.) 

A century more will be needed to complete the work of 
civilization in which we are engaged. Happily, there is no 
external attraction, no outward pressure from within, to 
divert us from it. There never has been an instance in the 
history of human society in which so many elements com- 
bined to devote a great people to internal development, and 
to turn away their thoughts from the fatal policy of forcible 
aggrandisement. I call it a fatal policy, for all experience 
teaches that it is not only instinct with the spirit of inter- 
national discord, but that it carries along with it all the 
elements of domestic disaster and humiliation. (Applause.) 
Is it not so, Mr. President ? From an army of a million 
of men, brought together by a most distressing necessity, 
we have reduced our military force to less than forty 
thousand soldiers, with a population of nearly forty millions 
of souls, and with a territory equal to three-fourths of the 
entire geographical area of the continent of Europe. 



23 



I believe there are few intelligent persons on either side 
of the Atlantic who do not expect to see our jurisdiction 
still further enlarged. If this expectation is realised, it will 
be through amicable arrangements with other States. We 
have gained nothing heretofore by violence or injustice ; we 
desire to gain nothing by unworthy schemes of territorial 
acquisition — those dangerous instruments of ambition by 
which nations are nearly certain to work out, soon or late, 
their own downfall. (Applause.) If future accessions of 
territory come to us, it will be, as in the past, through 
causes prepared beyond the circle of our own influences, 
and by agencies higher than our own. It is on this condi- 
tion only that such accessions will prove a blessing to 
ourselves or a benefit to mankind. (Applause.) 

Such is the spirit of the popular movement across the 
continent of North America. Nearly all the great migra- 
tions which history has recorded, from the Christian Era to 
the present time, consist of the exodus of barbarous nations 
from the inhospitable regions in which they were bred, 
transferring themselves to more genial latitudes, and gaining 
possession by brute force of the treasures of civilization ; or 
of fiery incursions, the offspring of religious frenzy, seeking 
to propagate creeds of faith by fire and sword. Ours is the 
majestic, but the calm and bloodless, march of the hosts of 
civilization, in the ranks of which every nation in Christendom 
has its representatives, going forth to subdue a wilderness, 
and to extract from its woods, its soils, and its caverns, by 
the patient hand of industry, the treasures Nature has been 
accumulating from the beginning of time. In regard to 
the relations of the great States of the Eastern hemi- 
sphere to each other, we may be said to have been in the 
past, as I trust we may be in the future, an Unarmed 
Neutrality, standing aloof from their rivalries and their 
conflicts, asserting within our own limits without any of 
the insignia of military force or preparation, but main- 



24 



taming through the more powerful agencies of opinion , 
the principles which we believe to be best calculated to 
secure our own happiness and prosperity, and to promote 
the welfare of the human race. In the spirit of peace, and 
not of war — of improvement, and not of devastation — of 
fraternity, and not of aggression, — 

" Across the wide-spread continent our fathers' flag we bear, 

Each hill and vale from sea to sea the sacred sign shall wear, 
And unseen hands shall strengthen ours to hold it high in air, 
As we go marching on." 

(Great applause.) 

What may be our condition and our destiny a hundred 
years hence, when the vacant spaces between the two 
oceans shall be filled up, and the reaction of population 
shall be felt, as it inevitably must be, from the shores of the 
Pacific, no human sagacity can foresee. We can only hope 
that there may be nothing in our history during the inter- 
vening years to render us unworthy of the prosperity w T hich 
has been vouchsafed to us ; that we may go on quietly and 
steadily to the completion of our great task ; preserving our 
good faith in all things with scrupulous fidelity ; respecting 
the laws and institutions of other countries, as we call on 
them to respect our own ; abstaining from all interference in 
their domestic concerns — nay, more, abstaining from all pro- 
pagandism, excepting through the peaceful example of good 
government within our own limits, leaving to Providence to 
determine in what manner and to what extent the principles 
of our political system shall, in other quarters of the globe, 
exert an influence friendly to the advancement and diffusion 
of knowledge, the progress of improvement in industry and 
the arts, and the best good of the human race. 

By a firm adherence to these just rules of action, we 
believe we may confidently count upon a measure of 
prosperity as full, and a reputation as free from reproach, 
as have fallen to the lot of any people in the annals of time. 



We trust there is no egotism in this thought. We are sure 
there is no unworthy ambition in it. We believe there is 
no presumption in trusting to Providence for a continuance 
of our prosperity if we observe towards those who fall under 
the dominion of our government, whether native or foreign 
born, the principles of equal justice ; and if, in our inter- 
course with foreign States, we conform to those rules of 
international right and obligation which have received the 
sanction of the civilized world ; demanding only that the 
same maxims of reciprocal justice shall be as sacredly 
respected by others, and that the high, seas, the common 
pathway of nations, shall be free from all pretension to 
superiority or arbitrary control. (Applause.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot sit down without saying 
a few words to you in regard to the Government under the 
protection of which you are living. Between France and 
the United States there has been from the earliest period a 
strong bond of affinity, which ought never to be broken. 
She came to our aid during the trying period of our infancy 
—nay, during the very throes of our national gestation — 
and rendered us the most essential service. The swords of 
Washington and Greene and Lafayette and Rochambeau 
on the land, and of De Grasse and d'Estaing and Truxton 
and John Paul Jones on the sea, were unsheathed in the 
cause of our independence ; and but for this active and 
friendly co-operation the conflict would, no doubt, have 
been more protracted and more costly, both in treasure and 
blood. It may, perhaps, be in some degree owing to this 
early association that, with interests running in the same 
channel, and, therefore, in danger of collision, the mis- 
understandings between the two countries have for nearly a 
century been few in number, unimportant in their character, 
brief in duration, and leaving behind them no rankling 
feeling of resentment. (Applause.) 

The advantages enjoyed in Paris by the American 



26 



colony, which has become so populous as almost to con- 
stitute a distinctive feature in the physiognomy of the city, 
can be by none better appreciated than by ourselves. We 
are as completely under the protection of the Government 
as the citizens of France, and we are required to con- 
tribute nothing directly to its support. We are living 
without personal taxation or exactions of any sort in this 
most magnificent of modern capitals, full of objects of 
interest, abounding in all that can gratify the taste, as well 
as in sources of solid information ; and these treasures of 
art and of knowledge are freely opened to our inspection 
and use. Nor is this all. We are invited to participate 
most liberally — far more liberally than at any other Court 
in Europe — in the hospitalities of the Palace. I have, 
myself, during the two years and a half of my service here, 
presented to their Imperial Majesties more than three 
hundred of our fellow citizens of both sexes ; and a much 
larger number presented in former years have, during the 
same period, shared the same courtesies. With these asso- 
ciations of the past and of the present, the prosperity of 
this great Empire cannot be a matter of indifference to 
us ; and it speaks strongly in favor of the illustrious 
Sovereign who, for the last twenty years, has held its 
destinies in his hands, that the condition of the people, 
materially and intellectually, has been constantly im* 
proving, and that the aggregate prosperity of the country 
is greater perhaps at the present moment than it has 
been at any former period of time. It is worthy of 
remark, too, that the venerable leader of the Opposition 
in the Corps Legislatif, one of those remarkable men 
who leave the impress of their opinions on the age in 
which they live, recently declared that the Government, in 
many essential respects, was in a course of liberal progress. 
As you know, the debates in that body on questions of 
public policy are unrestricted ; they are reported with great 



•21 



accuracy, and promptly published in the official journal and 
other newspaper presses ; and thus the people of France 
are constantly advised of all that is said for or against the 
administrative measures which concern their interests. In 
liberal views and in that comprehensive forecast which 
shapes the policy of the present to meet the exigencies of 
the future, the Emperor seems to me to be decidedly in 
advance of his Ministers, and even of the popular body 
chosen by universal suffrage to aid him in his legislative 
labors. (Applause. ) 

Of her who is the sharer of his honors and the com- 
panion of his toils, who, in the hospital, at the altar, or on 
the throne, is alike exemplary in the discharge of her varied 
duties, whether incident to her position or voluntarily taken 
upon herself, it is difficult for me to speak without rising 
above the level of the common language of eulogium. 
But I am standing here to-day as a citizen of the 
United States, without official relations to my own Go- 
vernment or to any other ; I have taken my leave of the 
Imperial family, and I know no reason why I may not 
freely speak what I honestly think, especially as I know I 
can say nothing which will not find a cordial response in 
your own breasts. As in the history of the ruder sex, great 
luminaries have from time to time risen high above the 
horizon to break and, at the same time, to illustrate the 
monotony of the general movement ; so in the annals of 
her's, brilliant lights have at intervals shone forth and shed 
their lustre upon the stately march of regal pomp and 
power. Such was one of her royal predecessors of whom 
Edmund Burke said, " there never lighted on this orb, 
which she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful 
vision." Such was that radiant Queen of Bohemia, whose 
memory history has embalmed, and to whom Sir Henry 
Wotton, in a moment of poetic exaltation, compared the 
beauties of the skies. And such is She of whom I am 



2* 



speaking. When I have seen her taking part in that most 
imposing, as I think, of all Imperial pageants, the opening 
of the Legislative Chambers, standing amid the assembled 
magistracy of Paris and of France, surrounded by the 
representatives of the talent, the genius, the learning, the 
literature, and the piety of this great empire, or amid the 
resplendent scenes of the palace, moving about with a 
gracefulness all her own, and with a simplicity of manner 
which has a double charm when allied to exalted rank and 
station, I confess I have more than once whispered to 
myself, and I believe not always inaudibly, that beautiful 
verse of the graceful and courtly Claudian, the last of the 
Roman poets — 

" Divino semita gressu claruit 

or, rendered into our plain English and stripped of its 
poetic hyperbole, "the very path she treads is radiant with 
her unrivalled step." (Long- continued applause.) 

But I must not be tempted by any theme, however 
inspiring, to trespass longer on your patience. Before 
I conclude I desire to express my gratification that I am 
addressing you in the presence of my successor, 
Mr. Washburne, a gentleman who has been long dis- 
tinguished in the legislative councils of our country, and 
who enjoys in an eminent degree the confidence of the 
chief magistrate of the Union. We have been personally 
acquainted many years ; and it is with sincere pleasure that, 
in taking the diplomatic mantle from my own shoulders, 
I am permitted to lay it upon his. As my predecessor, Mr. 
Bigelow, asked for me a continuance of the kindness and 
forbearance you had always extended to him, so do I solicit 
in behalf of my successor, Mr. Washburne, a repetition 
of the same friendly offices ; and I congratulate you in 
advance on the gratification I am sure you will derive from 
your association with him and his family. (Applause.) 
And now I, have but one word more to say, after renew- 



29 



ing the expression of my thanks for all your kindness and 
courtesy, and that is to wish you, as I do from the bottom 
of my heart, all possible happiness and prosperity. (Warm 
and long-continued applause.) 

When the applause which followed the conclusion of 
General Dix's speech had subsided, and after a brief 
interval, which was improved by the orchestra, the President 
arose and said : — 

It is now my privilege to introduce to your per- 
sonal acquaintance one whose history is familiar to you 
all ; who for sixteen years, in the Congress of the 
United States, has been the zealous defender of liberty, 
and the watchful guardian of the Treasury ; the friend of 
the sainted Lincoln, the fearless champion of our warrior 
President ere his genius had lighted up the world; the 
child of the East — the man of the West ; the representative 
of the nation at the Court of our ancient ally, the Hon. 
E. B. Washburne. 

Mr. Washburne, on rising, was received with repeated 
cheers, and responded in the following terms : — 

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE HON. 
E. B. WASHBUKNE. 

Mr. President, — 
I tender you my sincere thanks for the very kind and 
complimentary terms in which you have been pleased to 
introduce me on the present occasion. I wish to express 
my gratification in being able to be present here to-night 
to join with the American residents in Paris in doing honor 
to the distinguished man who has just retired from his 
position as the American representative near the Court of 
France, a position which he has filled with so much ability, 
tact, and judgment, so much to the acceptance of his own 
Government, to our American citizens here, and so agree- 



30 



ably to the Government to which he was accredited. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

I listened, Mr. President, with great pleasure to the just 
and eloquent and graceful tribute you paid to him whom 
we have met to honor this evening, and it was plain to see 
that your words found a cordial and generous response 
from all present. You have alluded to his long and dis- 
tinguished career in the military as well as the civil and 
diplomatic service of his country, extending through a 
period, I believe, longer than that of any man now on the 
stage of American politics. And in all the public positions 
he has held, he has so conducted himself and so discharged 
all his duties as to make his name respected and honored 
wherever the American name is known. You have also 
alluded to an incident in his life so familiar to us all, and 
which is never mentioned but to stir all American hearts. 
I hope you will pardon me, General, if I should add a word 
to that history. No loyal man participating in public 
affairs at Washington will ever forget those terrible months 
of anxiety which immediately preceded the inauguration of 
Mr. Lincoln's Administration. Our grand old ship of state 
was drifting out to the sea of rebellion, and the American 
people stood aghast at the spectacle of their own Govern- 
ment being surrendered to traitors by their own sworn 
rulers. General Cass illustrated his patriotism and love of 
country by indignantly resigning as Secretary of State, 
when the Administration refused to take action to hold Fort 
Sumter. Cobb held on as Secretary of the Treasury in 
order to destroy the credit of the Government, and suc- 
ceeded to that extent that we could only borrow money in 
Wall-street at twelve per cent., while our Six per Cents, are 
now at twenty-three per cent, premium. Floyd held on to 
enable himself to place our arms and munitions of war in 
the hands of the rebels. Toucey continued in place to send 
our men-of-war to distant seas, and Thompson remained in 



31 



the Interior Department to give his greater influence to the 
cause of secession. But when by the force of an indignant 
public sentiment Cobb was driven out, and while con- 
demning the weak and oscillating policy of Mr. Buchanan, 
we must ever be thankful to him for calling to the Treasury 
Department at that terrible crisis a man of the loyalty, 
courage, firmness, and ability of General John A. Dix. 
(Great applause.) I have spoken of the anxious months in 
Washington before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. In that 
time of rebellion and revolution no man knew what a day 
might bring forth. General Scott had removed his head- 
quarters to Washington, and was trying to gather together 
the fragments of our little army, which had been scattered 
to. the four corners of our vast territory, and was also 
endeavouring to gain information touching the rebel move- 
ments. It was then my fortune to be associated with a 
distinguished western senator, Governor Grimes, of Iowa, 
in the work of watching the operations of the secessionists 
in and about Washington. That brought us into frequent 
consultation with the Lieutenant- General. During an 
interview one evening the servant announced General Dix, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, and he was invited im- 
mediately into the room. After passing the compliments 
of the evening, General Dix said he had come to consult 
General Scott on a point of military law — that he found 
himself a little rusty on that subject, having been so long 
out of military service. He then went on to explain that a 
Captain Breshwood, in command of one of our revenue 
cutters at New Orleans, had turned a traitor, and was about 
to put the cutter into the service of the rebels. That being 
the case the point with Gen. Dix was whether he had the 
right to order the second officer of the cutter to put his 
superior officer under arrest as a mutineer ; and he then 
took from his pocket a despatch which he had prepared on 
the subject, and which he then read to the Lieutenant- 



32 



General. It was the despatch alluded to by the President, 
which history will transmit to the latest generations. I 
shall never forget how the eyes of the old chieftain lighted 
up when the despatch was read, and how warmly he ex- 
claimed, " Capital; it is just the thing. You are not at 
fault, General, in your military law. I hope you will send 
it right off." The General responded, he had only delayed 
it to have his opinion, and that it would go at once. After 
General Dix had left the room, General Scott rubbed his 
hands with absolute delight, and said to Governor Grimes 
and myself, " What a glorious thing it is to have a military 
man associated with you in such a time." (Applause.) 
And now, Mr. President, when we here gaze on the ample 
folds of that flag, without a stripe erased or a single star 
obscured, but each illustrating the power and glory of our 
country — (applause) — that flag borne always in triumph in 
foreign and domestic war, floating on every sea, and in 
every land the aegis and shield of us all, revered and 
venerated by all Americans in our heart of hearts, we all 
respond to that sentiment of our guest, destined to become 
immortal — " If anyone attempts to haul down the American 
flag, shoot him on the spot." (Great applause.) 

Mr. President, when I look forward to my own official 
residence here, following upon that of my distinguished 
friend, I can but feel how far short I shall fall of reaching 
that high standard he has erected for an American Minister 
at the Court of our ancient ally. But I can pledge my 
honest endeavour so to discharge all my duties as to give 
satisfaction to my Government, and in a manner accept- 
able to my countrymen who are abroad. (Applause.) In 
any official action I shall endeavour to maintain the relations 
existing between the two Governments, which, I am happy 
to say, are now of the most cordial character. (Applause.) 
It will add to the pleasure of my residence in Paris to be 
able to meet so many of my countrymen, distinguished for 



their patriotism and intelligence, enterprise and honor; 
and also my fair countrywomen, whose virtues are only 
equalled by their beauty, and whose charms grace the 
society of this beautiful city. (Applause.) 

I should be forgetful of the obligations of gratitude to a 
constituency to whom I owe so much, did I not refer to 
your 'kind allusion to my service in the Congress of the 
United States. In the long and eventful years of that 
service, I make no claim to public regard further than 
having strived conscientiously to do my whole duty without 
fear or favor ; and if I have accomplished any good for my 
country, it was because I had the friendship of a con- 
stituency which for nine successive elections supported and 
sustained me, through good and evil report, with a zeal and 
devotion which in all lands and in all times must for ever 
challenge my profoundest gratitude. (Applause.) 

You have been kind enough, Mr. President, to couple 
my name with that of a man whose memory is enshrined 
in all our hearts and whose name trembles on all our lips — 
Abraham Lincoln ; a man who in four short years of the 
civil administration of our Government, chained his name 
to the history of the world. It was my fortune to enjoy 
his friendship both in private and official life for a quarter 
of a century. But I pause ; for if this were even the 
occasion I should fail, for I feel how utterly inadequate I 
am to the task of pronouncing a fitting eulogy on that 
great Martyr to Liberty. (Applause.) But every 
American drops a tear on the green grave where his ashes 
repose, among the people of that State of his and of my 
adoption, and by whom he was so much beloved. But all 
the nations loved him too, and at " the deep damnation of 
his taking off" they honored his memory as the memory 
of man has not been honored in our own time — 
" Such honors Ilion to her hero paid, 
And peaceful sleeps the mighty Hector's shade." 
(Applause. ) c 



It was kind of you, Mr. President, to allude to the 
relations existing between the President and myself. 
While I have had the honor to enjoy his friendship and 
confidence, I have no right to claim any particular credit 
for his championship. Becoming satisfied at an early 
period in the war that he had great and exceptional 
qualities, both as a soldier and a man, I deemed it my 
duty to bring his name to the notice of the Government, and 
when attacked while in the service it was my duty to him, 
as a townsman and constituent, to defend him from the 
unjust attacks made upon him. And we all know how 
soon the period arrived when he required no defender, and 
how he carved his way to the gratitude and admiration of 
his countrymen with the point of his conquering sword. 
(Applause.) At the head of his victorious legions he 
fought more battles than he could count years, and at last 
suppressed the greatest rebellion of modern times, vindi- 
cated the national authority, and restored the government 
of our fathers. (Applause.) A grateful and confiding 
people have called him to preside over the destinies of the 
country which his valor saved. Differing as we honestly may 
in political sentiment, all can but hope that he may prove 
as successful in the civil as he was victorious in the military 
service of his country ; and that by the wisdom and justice 
and moderation of his administration he may heal the 
wounds of civil war, and lead all our people on in the paths 
of happiness, prosperity and glory. (Applause.) 

You need not be told of the regrets to be experienced at 
the departure of our late Minister, and I feel that I am safe 
in saying that when he shall leave the shores of France for 
our own beloved land, that he will bear with him the best 
wishes and the kindest regards of every person who has had 
the happiness to know him during his official residence in 
Paris. (Applause.) I wish to join in the earnest prayer 
of you all that, with bright skies and favoring gales, he 



may have vouchsafed a happy return to his family and 
friends 

" In the land of the free 
And the home of the brave." 

(Loud applause.) 

At the conclusion of Mr. Washburne's speech, the 
President again rose and said : — 

It is our good fortune to have with us to-night one 
Avho from his very boyhood was eloquent in his country's 
cause. He pleaded for the rights of four millions of 
slaves until their last fetters fell. He now, in loftier 
tones, pleads before the nations the cause of four hun- 
dred millions of men. 

Proud of him as an American, always loyal to his 
country, still prouder are we that he has been faithful to 
his trust in his present mission, and has used the great 
powers confided to him in no partial sense. 

I now present to you the Minister of China, the Hon. 
Anson Burlingame. 

Mr. Burlingame arose, and, the applause with which he 
was warmly greeted ceasing, responded : — 

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE HON. A. BURLINGAME. 
Mr. President, — 

I thank you for the kind manner in which you have seen 
fit to speak of me. I thank this company also for its 
manifestation of good will. 

It is a satisfaction to be recognised as one who loves his 
country and his fellow-men ; but l am not here to respond to 
personal allusions, however grateful I may feel for them ; 
I am here to pay homage to that illustrious citizen whose 
great qualities you have so well described. (Applause. ) I 
am here to forget in the ardour of friendship the language 
of diplomacy — to bid him God speed to the home that he 
has honored and the land that loves him well. (Applause.) 



m 

As I listened to his modest and tasteful speech, describ- 
ing the progress of the institutions of our country, I felt 
that the best illustration of them was the speaker himself. 
(Applause.) Born on the coldest hills of New England, 
with no advantages not open alike to all, he has filled nearly 
every post of trust and honor which his country could 
confer. He has in his own person shed a new lustre upon 
civil, military, and diplomatic life. The simple statement 
of these facts is the best tribute to his country and him- 
self (applause), for it shows the power of the one to 
develop the energy of the other. But for such men as he 
is, the lures of the beautiful valleys, which he has so 
charmingly described, would have lain in silence for ever ; 
but for the antecedent personal liberty of which he has 
spoken such men as he could not have existed, and personal 
liberty itself would not have been established but for the 
great thoughts and fearless efforts of the men who first 
stood on the shores of the western continent. (Applause.) 

To understand the amazing energy of the American 
people we must remember not only these men, but we must 
recall the character of the emigrants who have passed from 
the old to the new world. They have been the most daring 
children of Europe. We must remember that it required 
more courage to cross the Atlantic, until recently, than to 
fight a battle. So it was the bravest son and the most 
fearless daughter who would face the perils of the deep and 
the dangers beyond. It required great courage to go and 
more to remain, for it was not a festive land to which they 
went, but one of toil and danger. Nature had to be 
subdued, and barbarism and their own prejudices. 

From the Pilgrims to this hour that heroic people have 
left the impress of their mighty energies upon the physical 
and moral world. (Applause.) There is no danger which 
they have not dared. There is no question which they have 
not discussed and settled, and in such a way as to broaden 



37 



and deepen the foundations of freedom. (Applause.) When 
it was sought to build a government upon the prejudices of 
religion, they would not have it ; when it was sought to 
tax them without representation, they fought for seven 
years all over a continent, and established their inde- 
pendence. (Applause.) 

When it was sought to introduce as a permanent element 
into our Government the wild phantasy that there can be 
property in man, they arose and entered upon a struggle 
which cost the lives of five hundred thousand men, the 
dearest souls that ever entered the gates of Paradise. (Ap- 
plause.) Because of this your guest was able to make the 
proud boast that now no servile foot presses the soil of his 
country. (Applause.) But the war is over; what was 
fought for is gone for ever. Let the sunshine of a thousand 
peaceful summers settle upon the common graves of our 
gallant countrymen. (Applause.) We are brothers now. 
(Applause.) We have had a great fight, let us have a great 
fraternization. (Long-continued applause.) Let us join 
hands and hearts, and rallying round the symbols of our 
ancient faith and common glory, press on with irresistible 
strength to the swift-coming future. (Applause.) Let us 
rejoice together that the great fabric of our Government 
rests, not upon a single prejudice whether of religion, or 
color, or race, but upon a great principle which gives equal 
and exact justice to all. (Applause.) Because our guest 
knows the history of his country, because he knows the 
character of its people, because the great spirit of the 
fathers is upon him and the fiery energy of their 
children is in his heart, he could, looking back upon the 
past — upon his own experience covering half a century 
in which he has taken a part in the discussion and settlement 
of the greatest questions that ever engaged the attention of 
mortal man— (applause) — he could, I say, looking to such 
a past and turning to the future, lift up his voice like a 



38 



prophet whose words will find an echo in every American 
heart. (Applause.) Because of this he could define the 
laws of progress for his country, and state with precision 
the conditions on which it must be made. Let us hope, with 
him, that its great march towards the achievement of the 
mission he has mentioned may be peaceful (applause) ; that 
it will not enter upon any armed propagandism of its views. 
Let us join him in the aspiration that by the majesty of its 
action it will attract other peoples and other lands to its 
peaceful sway. (Applause.) Let us join him in the desire 
that our country shall not interfere in the affairs of others ; 
for it is the sacred right of every people to unfold them- 
selves in precisely that form of civilization of which 
they are most capable. It is their right to have the 
jurisdiction of their own affairs, and for those who think 
alike and speak alike to act together for their enlightened 
interests and in the development of true nationalism. 
(Applause.) But while we do not interfere in other 
people's affairs, nor permit them to interfere in ours, 
we cannot forget that we are a great nation, that we can- 
not abdicate our responsibilities, that we must take our part 
in the peaceful police of the sea and the land (applause), 
and in the maintenance of those principles of international 
law which recognize the equality of nations as we 
recognize the equality of men. (Applause.) That, as it 
is the highest duty of every society to protect the weak 
from the strong, so the weak nations and struggling 
peoples should find ample protection in that sense of justice 
of the strong nations which they cannot lose and prosper. 
(Applause.) 

And now, joining our distinguished friend in his tribute 
to the French nation and the rulers whom they have chosen — 
joining him especially in his surpassingly beautiful tribute to 
the Empress — (applause) — let us with full hearts bid him 
farewell, and hope for him every joy that may come to 
mortals, (Warm applause,) 



The President, on introducing the Hon. Alexander H. 
Bullock, said : — 

We have with us to-night an eminent citizen of the 
Old Bay State — one who has long been identified with 
its institutions and government, and who by his eloquence 
and learning has added fresh renown to its Legislative and 
Executive Departments. 

I beg to introduce to you the Hon. Alexander H. 
Bullock, late Governor of Massachusetts. (Great applause.) 

SPEECH OF THE HON. ALEXANDER H. BULLOCK. 
Mr. President, — 
It seems scarcely less than a superfluity that anything 
should be added to the striking and felicitous remarks 
which have already expressed our purpose and crowned the 
occasion. And yet there is nothing superfluous, after all, 
in saying once more before we separate how largely our 
countryman and friend, the late Minister, takes with him, 
as he sets his face towards home, the absolute respect and 
esteem of all Americans whether resident or transient on 
this side of the ocean. And certainly this is a free-will 
offering, which never was more justly merited by anyone. 
To that executive capacity and straightforwardness which 
marked his labors in this as in every former field in which 
Ave have known him, in the discharge of his duties at this 
capital he has added a patience, courtesy, and kindness 
towards his many countrymen visiting here, which I am 
sure they are all ready to place high among the diplomatic 
virtues. I doubt not you will indulge me hi one other 
remark in relation to this gentleman, — involvhig some 
delicacy indeed when uttered in his presence, but quite fit 
to be introduced in the general survey of his character which 
we are entitled to take at this moment. For myself, the 
respect for General Dix, which has brought me to this 



40 



tabic, is not by any means diminished by what I believe to 
be the fact, — a fact possibly a little more rare now than at 
some former periods among public men, — that he retires 
from a prominent official life of twenty-five years with the 
power safely to challenge the closest scrutiny of his conduct 
and without having added to his private fortune. When 
such men quit the public service they leave the country 
greatly in debt to them. (Applause.) 

To an assemblage like the present, — comprising Ameri- 
cans who represent the several characteristic occupations, 
ranging all the way between those who are stationed here 
in fixed commercial relations and the greater number who 
are here for a longer or shorter period in pursuit of general 
knowledge and recreation, — a portion having taken on 
somewhat the complexion of this local sky, while others 
feel passing over their cheeks only the color of the sky they 
recently parted from at home, — but all Americans still, 
with hearts beating true to the anthem of their country and 
eyes rekindling at every fresh instance of her progress and 
glory, — to you and me, one and all, it is gratifying to 
believe, against every idle rumour from whatsoever quarter 
it may come, that we sit this evening in the shade of a 
cordial and compacted concord between France and the 
United States. There are historical reasons why the 
Emperor and the President should be thoughtful of the 
present hour. This is to both countries a centennial era. 
It is not far from this time an hundred years since the lilies 
of France were borne on many a field of ours to a conquest 
which gave to us also an independent flag. In all this 
lapse of time, through the successive dynasties and adminis- 
trations, between the land of Lafayette and the land of 
Washington, that ensign which the two won together has 
not been ruffled by a serious adversity. Whatever evil 
might once or twice have happened, and whatever evil some 
persons would have had happen, none has actually occurred. 



41 



Nor is any likely to occur. No people have better reason 
than the French to respect the history of the Great 
Republic, and none can better afford in interest and 
sentiment to welcome the fact that this history has no steps 
backward to take — that the North American Union is at 
length complete, and that the name of its President is itself 
a flag. (Applause.) Then the commerce of the two countries 
has been and must continue to be a perpetual peace-maker 
and peace-preserver. Nor can I deem it frivolous or merely 
sentimental to speak of a pending event as fit to become 
another guaranty of enduring friendship. Before the most 
rapid of our tourists now here shall find their way back to 
New York or Boston, we may expect that the ship, at 
present taking on board its freight in a French port, shall 
carry to our shore the only cable actually joining Europe 
with the United States. And you will pardon me if with 
a local pride I take to heart what I have read during my 
present stay in Paris, the Act of the Government of my 
State of Massachusetts — the only sovereignty that could 
confer the boon — granting the right to land this electric mes- 
senger of commerce and amity upon the coast of Cape Cod ; 
by the same waters which two hundred and fifty years back 
furnished anchorage to that famous little bark that bore in 
its cabin the Constitution of the future Republic. (Applause.) 
Most assuredly, Mr. President, in these passages of history, 
in these august events. — in the stedfast union of the kino; of 
that early day with our own Washington, in the un- 
interrupted friendship between both countries during a 
century, in the forthcoming last act which is to impress 
upon the very earth beneath the ocean the signet seal of 
assurance for a common fraternity in the future, — in these 
three, I am justified in finding that real triple alliance, of 
which the newspapers in the recent display of their prolific 
ingenuity have not even given us the mention. (Laughter 
and applause.) 



42 



Gentlemen, it must at times have seemed to you, as it 
Las to me, that here, far away from home, and removed from 
participation in the events and excitements transpiring 
there, an American citizen may perceive in even more clear 
and conspicuous light the proportions of his country with- 
out exaggeration and without diminution. While we re- 
mained there we ourselves were actors, and our senses 
partook of the confusion of the scenes. But the transparent 
medium of distance presents to our sight the whole grand 
picture, correctly limned, free from the illusion of coloring, 
and without shackles upon the outline. Accordingly, to 
no portion of our countrymen do the historical stages, and 
growths, and achievements of their nation appear more 
sensibly or more impressively than to those of them who are 
in foreign lands. Here quite impartially you apprehend in 
the fulness of its meaning, and seize, in your pride and 
affection, that recent lesson of a national unity now for the 
first time achieved and established beyond every possibility 
of disruption in the ages to come. All the antagonisms 
which had accumulated for a century, all the oppositions of 
sections and climates and products, all the diversities of 
histories and races, which from the beginning had im- 
perilled the existence of a common central sovereignty, 
have been welded by the flames of war into one bond of 
paternal strength, which belts the continent, makes it 
indissoluble from vices within, and makes it invincible to 
forces from abroad. (Applause.) No person can realise better 
than you that there is not an American merchant upon this 
eastern hemisphere, — in London, Paris, St. Petersburg, on 
either side of the Cape of Good Hope, — who does not now 
feel, as he could never feel before, that he represents a 
Government which is capable of protecting him. Having 
proved sufficient to maintain its own integrity in the 
severest of recorded struggles, it may henceforth be con- 
sidered able to defend the honor and rights of its citizens in 



every part of the globe. If twenty-five millions, not with- 
out some division among themselves, could levy and subsist 
and animate the recent armies, to which there has been no 
parallel in modern annals, it is not difficult to say what 
forty millions would accomplish with one heart and one 
mind pervading the whole area from centre to circum- 
ference. Let us trust that the day is far distant when 
such power will be summoned to the requisition, There is 
exemption from arms in the existence of power. The aim 
of our country is humanity ; and therefore it is progress. 
Its end is justice ; in due time and at all hazards justice 
to itself and justice to its citizens ; and therefore it will be 
peace. (Great applause.) 

I should be incomplete in my appreciation of the spirit of 
patriotic congratulation which pervades this convention of 
Americans, if I should not unite with you in hailing a late 
event in our country as the last decisive harbinger of com- 
merce and empire. Hitherto the geographical features of 
our territory have been in some particulars against us. 
Mountain ridges have stood in the way of commercial 
unity. For thirty-five years we have by railroad commu- 
nication overcome these obstacles, one after another, until 
only a single field of separation remained closed to the rapid 
exchange of the agencies of civilization between the Atlantic 
and the Pacific States. Now at length, almost in an un- 
expected hour, brain and muscle have conquered geography, 
the civil engineer has suddenly become master of the situa- 
tion, and the song of Bishop Berkeley is repeated by electric 
beat in one and the same moment of civic ovation at New 
York and San Francisco. (Applause.) It was formerly a 
custom at Venice to solemnise the espousal of the city with 
the Adriatic by imposing ceremonies in which the Doge and 
the Court participated. How trans cendently surpassing that 
was the late simple and sublime bridal of the Atlantic and 
the Pacific, celebrated midway in the heart of our con- 



44 



tiiient ! Or rather perhaps I should more properly say, it 
was not so much an espousal as it was a national coronation. 
California and Arizona and Nevada bore the mace of silver 
and gold before the Queen of Nations receiving her hnperial 
crown ; receiving it not from the hands of bristling soldiery but 
from the arm of the engineer and the laborer, all the hosts of 
agriculture, commerce, and the arts, in the towns and upon 
the prairies, catching at the same instant the signal of the 
new era and re-echoing it from ocean to ocean. (Applause.) 
The great work is done, and hereafter the States are a unit 
in commerce as in government. Before my friend, Mr. 
Burlingame, has half completed his cosmopolitan mission, 
the freight trains have been made up at San Francisco 
laden with the product of China ; and by the time he shall 
have unpacked his trunks at Berlin, he may drink at the 
breakfast-table his favorite tea, which, thanks to the irrepres- 
sible and irresistible Yankees (laughter), has been brought 
round to him the other way. All things are changed by these 
new comers upon the world's arena. As in war there is no 
longer a prestige save to the strongest legions, so in the 
cultures of peace the fruits of success fall into the arms of 
those who get up earliest in the morning and carry the 
clearest heads and the most indomitable energy through the 
labors of the day. And that condition can only be fully 
attained in a country where the personal liberty of the 
individual man, free education and voluntary religion, a right 
to enjoy his conscience, his earnings, and an unrestricted, 
unmolested suffrage in the choice of his rulers, expands his 
soul, exhilarates his life, and moves him to enterprise, 
adventure, and independence. (Applause.) We may well 
rejoice that such is the opportunity and the fortune of every 
citizen of the United States, and that our country enjoys a 
corresponding result to the sisterhood of nations.- What- 
ever attractions other countries may present to us, whatever 
objects of interest to the senses, whatever to be studied and 



admired, these indue time pale before the larger conception 
of national justice, freedom, and power, and the dust of 
our native land becomes dearer to us than all other lands 
beside. (Applause.) 

Gentlemen, it is the spontaneous impulse of my heart to 
say a word to you about the honorable gentleman who 
succeeds General Dix as our national representative at the 
Imperial Court. My own acquaintance with Mr. Wash- 
burne probably antedates that which any one of you can 
recall. It happened that thirty years ago the next autumn 
we occupied rooms side by side as students at law in the 
University at Cambridge. Following his profession in 
another section of the Union, he has engrafted upon the 
education of the East the stout and manly qualities of the 
West. He brings to his high mission the teachings of 
Story, enriched by a large experience in public life. These 
will stand by him and support him, as upon every occasion 
he will stand by and support his country. Having the con- 
fidence of the President and the people, he has already 
received yours fully in advance, and I could not refrain 
from uniting my feeble but cordial tribute with the common 
testimonial. (Loud applause.) 



The President arose and said that the hour now being 
late, he would close the ceremonies of the occasion by 
calling upon the Eev. Dr. Robinson to invoke the Divine 
blessing. 



Thanks. 

Our Father which art in Heaven ! We thank Thee for this 
assemblage of countrymen and friends. And now before we 
separate, in decorous and reverent silence, we bring ourselves to 



46 

Thee. God bless the President of the United States and all associated 
with him in the rule of the Republic. God bless the Emperor of the 
French and all the Imperial household, under the shelter of whose 
protection we have been permitted to meet. God bless his servant 
who now journeys over the sea, and as well his servant whom we 
welcome in the vacant place. "We thank Thee for the memories of 
the one, and for the hopes centred in the other. We thank Thee 
for the mellow beams of the setting sun, and for the bright rays of 
the sun that is rising. We thank Thee for the gentle dignity which 
lays down the robes of office, and for the manly, modest confidence 
which assumes them. We thank Thee for the worth that claims 
recognition and for the generous appreciation that meets it. Grant, 
we beseech of Thee, to us all, that when our work is completed we 
may receive for our fidelity that reward, sweeter than any plaudit 
from merely human lips — " Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant ! " And to Thee be all grace and glory, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. — Amen. 



PARIS. — IMPRIMERIE KUGELMANN, RUE DES JEUNEURS. 



